Even though American's did not like their drinking habits, they were finding out that it is hard to just stop since they were chemically dependent. Ideals are fine, and perhaps it was a nice idea to rid America of alcohol, but the fact is that what the law was intended to do and what it actually accomplished were two different things. Not long after the law was enacted, "people began to flout it right and left.men and women who had always considered themselves patrons of law-abiding respectability began to patronize bootleggers, or home-brew very peculiar beer," (Lewis 145). Prohibition changed the role of alcohol in peoples lives, many Americans started to drink more and have a generally lower opinion of the law enforcement (Encarta 1-4). The law indirectly forced drinkers to switch to more serious drugs like opium, marijuana, patent medicines, and cocaine (Thornton 70-73). Even the drinking problem worsened as people who used to have only a beer or light cocktail at parties, found it easier and less expensive to have shots of gin or Moonshine (illegal whiskey) (Allen 253). In general people's morals were on a decline. Sights, like the teenage boy and girl wearing hip pocket flasks to social gatherings or the local cop being in cahoots with bootleggers, began to be common place (Lewis 145). The media also did not help since it glamorized drinking . The media reinforced an image "of the underworld as a natural manifestation of ethnic urban life," (Kelly 78). Alcohol went from being a small insignificant part of daily life to a major social event (Kelly 80). Rich people offered a shot of gin instead of cigars and there was a youthful excitement in going to the local bar and grills to have cocktails with friends (Allen 243). Worst of all was the tabloids, where readers could find romance and adventure in the everyday stories of gangster killings (Allen 261). In 1926, Senator James Reed of Missouri asked Lee Post, a student at Yale University, whether or not the prohibition law had had any influence on the campus (Ohio State 1).
